It's hopefully an established fact by now that when you want a Mies van der Rohe fix, you head straight to all around good guy, Edward Lifson. We've certainly posted our fair share of links to his writing about the brilliant architect, and have always enjoyed running into him around town and hearing what new things he has to say about van der Rohe's work. So again we make the leap over to Hello Beautiful for this recent look at all the finished restoration to 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, one of the architect's most beautiful high rises. We drive by the two towers nearly every morning on our way into the office and had seen the construction for what seems like years, but now it's apparently all done and ready to be fawned over, which Lifson does in spades, sharing not only some great photos of the newly improved structures, but a rundown of what was fixed as well. Here's a sampling:

All the stainless steel around the lower eight feet of the building was replaced. Much of the rest of the stainless steel was spot repaired and polished. Doors on the south elevation of 880 that had been moved to the center were restored to their original positions.

We also wanted to post this so we could remind you of what we called back in August, "The End All-Be-All of Architecture Critics Panels." The Chicago Architecture Foundation has their program A Conversation with the Critics: Imagining the Future of the City tomorrow night at 6pm. It looks like Jonathan Glancey won't be there, as was first announced, but he's been replaced by the LA Times' Christopher Hawthorne, so that isn't a bad trade at all. Plus, you'll still get to see Paul Goldberger, Blair Kamin, and Sarah Williams Goldhagen. And to pull this all together, full circle, it's hosted by Lifson. We'll be there and we've heard there are tickets still available, so what are you waiting for?!